the fand hills. The plains in their neighbourhood fwarm with enormous ferpents. At last they reached Guadnum, the afylum of the mott da ring rebels of all the Arabian tribes, the mart of the inhabitants of the defart, who come there to barter their camels, peltry, gum, &c for woolen tuffs, half white and haf crimfou; for wheat, barley, dates, horses, tobacco, gunpowder, combs, and mirrors. This trade is entirely carried on by the Jews. I he inha bitants live in a ftate of mutual dif truft; their houfes are gua ded by large dogs, and alfo their perfons, when th y walk through the city. Leaving Guadnum, they arrived at Mogadore, and were delivered up to the Governor, who fent them with an efcort to the Emperor, at Morocco, by whom he was foon after let at liberty. The character of the inhabitants of Morocco differs little from that of the Arabs of the defart: they are not of fo ftout a make, but of a fairer complexion; more accuf tomed to the fight of Europeans, but equally addicted to infulting them. The earthen ruinous walls of the pa lace refembled the inclosure of a church-yard; the outfide of the feraglio was not unlike a barn, and the houfes of the city of a very bad con ftruction, The narrative of Briffon represents the Moors and the Arabs of the Defart in the mon unfavourable point of view. Inflamed with refentment at the infults to which he was expofed from the religious bigotry of the Mahometans, and foured with the hardships he endured in the defait, to which the Arabs were equally obnoxious, but which they were more able to encounter. he gives every cir cumftance the moft malicious con ftruction. To a Frenchman of fine feelings, that appearance of infenfibility which mifery produces, affumed the form of deliberate cruelty The general outline of the picture he de lineates feems to be fufficiently correct, but the minute figures are pro bably in the ftyle of caricature. Like a certain painter of the Flemifh school, he cannot be charged with wilful exaggeration; but the rancour of his ulcerated mind darkened the faces of his devils, and gave their features a peculiar expreffion of malice, As he traverfed fome of the districts of the defart at a great distance from the fhore, his remarks on the manners of the Arabs who inhabit the interior, are extremely interesting. Of the Ouadelim and Labdeffeba. Of the inhabitants of the interior regions of Sahara, the Ouadelim and Labdeffeba are the most formidable, who often extend their ravages to the very gates of Morocco. Their hordes are frequently intermingled with thofe of the Rouffye, Rathidium, Chelus, Tucanois and Onadeli tribes, as they have no diftinct bounderies, and change their habitations, as the defart affords pafturage and water. they are tall, handfome, tout and vigorous men. Their hair is briftled, and their nails, which they often use in battle, as long as claws; large hanging ears and a long beard, give them a ftern forocious air. ¡he Ouadelim, in particular, are fierce, arrogant and warlike, but foon difpirited by obftinate refiftance, efpecially when they have not a decided fuperiority, in numbers. In their hordes they lodge by families, in tents which are covered with a thick cloth of camels hair, which the women fpin and weave upon a loom fo fmall, that they work fitting on the ground. The furniture of their tents confift of two large facks of leather, in which they keep old clothes and pieces of old iron, three or four goat-fkins for holding milk and water, two large ftones for grinding their barley, a fmaller one for driving the pins of their tents, an ozier matting, which ferves for a bed, a thick carpet for a covering, couering, a fall kettle, and fome wooden dishes, with pack faddles for their camels. The perfon who, befides thefe articles, poffeffes a few horfes, camels, theep and goats, is reckoned wealthy, as there are many Arabs who only poffefs fheep and goats. Except fore eyes and the cholic, they are fubject to few endemic diseases. The first diforder is caufed by the reflection of light from the burning fands of the defart, the other proceeds from the verdigreafe which contaminates all their victuals. i heir kettles are not tinned, and never wathed, fo that they are quite crufted over with verdigreafe, the virulence of which is probably diminished by the quantity of milk they ufe. When they refine long in one place, they fbmetimes plow the spots which are moiftened by the rain, and fprinkle them with feed in a careless manner. Plentiful crops are often thus produced; but, inftead of waiting till the grain attains maturity, they cut it down, and dry it over hot cinders. Treachery and perfidy are the innate vices of the Arabs; affaffinations are frequent; no man trufts the promise of another; no man makes a written agreement, as the poignard cancels all bonds and obligations. The men often relate their exploits to each other; the embellishing of a story is fucceeded by a charge of falsehood, and the poignard folves every difficulty. The ancient rites of hofpitality, however, are practifed among thefe tribes, in their utmost extent. The Arab, who, in the field, is a rapacions plunderer, becomes liberal and generous as foon as he enters his tent. War is only a fpecies of rapine, and the victory is decided at the firft fhock. The Arab is devoid of fanguinary courage; he attacks only to plunder, and never thinks that booty is to be put in competition with his life. When the battle is ended, each party make graves for the flain, and caclofe the tombs with mounds of tones. The ages of the warriors are denoted by the space of ground which the grave occupies, and the funeral proceffion is closed by the howls of the females. The women never affume the name of their husbands, and never eat with them at meals. They are faithful to their hufbands, and cannot be divoreed except by the decree of the feniors of the horde. The Arabs difplay their opulence by the ornaments of their women, whole ears, arms, and legs, are generally adorned with rings of gold and filver. An Arab beauty must have long teeth fhooting out of her mouth, a body extremely thick, and limbs of the longest size. At the birth of a fon, every woman, to teftify her joy, blackens her face for 40 days. At the birth of a daughter, fhe only daubs the half of her face, during the space of zo days. A mother treats her fon with the fame refpect as her husband, almost as foon as he is able to walk; the prepares his food, ferves him, and cats when he has finished his repaft. In the education of their young men, the moft important acquifitions are dexterity in the ufe of the poignard,, fkill in embowelling their enemies with their long nails, and a plausible air in concealing a falfehood. More rude and ferocious than the tribes whole territories lie upon the thore of the fea, the Labdeffeba and Ouadelim Arabs are alfo more confined and illiberal in their ideas, not only believing that they are the first nation in the world, but fancying that the fun rifes only for them. Briffon relates, that fome of them expressed this idea in unequivocal terms. "Be hold," faid they, "that luminary, "which is unknown in thy country. During the night, thou art not en. lightened, as we are, by that heavenly body, which regulates our days and our fafts. His children "(the flars,) point out to us the "hours of prayer. You have nei. "ther ❝ther trees nor camels, fheep, gats, nor dogs. Are your women fimi "lar to ours?" "How long didit ❝ thou remain in the womb of thy "mother," faid another"s long," replied Briffon, as thou did in that of thine." "Indeed," faid a third, counting the fingers and toes of the Frenchman," he is made like us, he differs only in his colour and language" "Do you fow barley in σε your houfes?" faid the Arabs, alluding to the hits of the Europeans. "No," faid B iffon, we fow in fields almot in the fame feafon as you "Huw! cried feveral, "do you inhabit the earth? we be lieved that you were born and liv “ed upon the fea.” These Arabs, according to the Turkish proverb, believe that all the world is like their Father's houfe: unacquainted with the manners of other nations, and unaccustomed to reflect upon the coufes of national character, every varia tion from their wn cuftoms appears not only ridiculous, but monftrous; every difference of opinion not only abfurd, but criminal. his ignorance of the Arabs, conjoined with their local and religious prejudices, enables as to account for the infulting treatment, which Briffon and his companionsrece ved, without having recourfe to inherent depravity of nature. In the 15th century millions of Indians were malfacred in America by the Spaniards, because they were thought to have the fices of monkeys; and, in a folemn council of ecclefiaftics, Ameri the negroes were condem: ed to flavery, because they had the colour of the damned Many of our early navigators relate, with great complacency, the moit abominable murders, the moft fhocking maflacres, which they committed, without the leaf remor, fe because their i offenfive victims were ignorant of the Chritian religion. Instances of the molt atrocious nature, even u paralleled by the barbarities of the Moors of Barbary aud the Sahara, occur in alm it every relation of African as well as can difcoveries. :he cruelty of the women and children might calily proceed from infantine curiofi y, from the vanity of exhibiting their courage, or from an ardent defire of difplaying their affection to their huf. bands or fathers. Is not the method by which civilized Europeans dif play their patriotifm, and their affection for their fiends, very fimilar to that of the Arabs? They do not indeed, in common cafes, treat their prifoners with wanton barbarity, but they pour forth the grofft invectives against hoftile nations, ad echo the moft fcurrilous mifreprefentations of their character. Such coincidences fhow, that the radical principles of the human conflitution are every where the fame, however they may happen to be modified by adventitions circumstances; that civilized fociety is not the caute of evil and vice, fince the caprice of the favage may convert his ftupidity into the muft ferocious and inhuman paffion. OUTLINE OF NORTH GUINEA OR NEGRITIA-GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY AND INHABITANTS-ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF GUALATA OR WALET-AND OF THE SLAVE TRADE. GUINEA-KINGDOM lential marhes and fultry fands, where the grey firmament bounds the defart, and the filence is only broken by the cry of the jackal. At every flep he fees fertil fields abandoned to defolation; villages deferted and cities ruined. ruined. He meets the mutilated remains of antiquity; the wrecks of temples, palaces, and fortifications, pillars, aquedu&s, and fepulchres; and perceives that the land has devoured its inhabitants! Winding towards the west, along the fhore of the Sebara, where life and vegetation almoft ceafe, where there are no ruins but the ruins of nature, and where only a few traggling Arabs, like evil genii, live in defpite of defolation, he at laft approaches a more fertile region, and the forefts of gum-trees The gum become more numerous tree is a fpecies of Acacia, evergreen, with long rough narrow leaves, full of prickles, and bearing a white flow er. accurate divifion of time into "months and years, than other na"tions." The fame opinion he attri butes to the Ethiopians. "The E 66 66 thiopians conceive themfelves to be "of greater antiquity than any other "nation; and it is probable that, ihe principal gum forefts lie a "born under the fun's path, its bout 60 leagues from Portendic and "warmth may have ripened them So from Arguin. Here the desart "earlier than other men. They upterminates in vague and ill-defined "pofe themselves alfo to be the inboundaries, and the proper territory "ventors of divine worship, of feliof the negroes commences, which the "vals, of folemn affemblies, of facriArabs term Biled al Soudan or Biled "fices, and every other religious al Abiad, the land of the Blacks, or "practice. They affirm that the the Land of Slaves. Along the coaft, Egyptians are one of their colonies, the foil is of very unequal quility." and that the Delta, which was forFrom Cape Blanco to the river Gam- "merly fea, became land by the conbia, it i fandy, with a large mixture "glomeration of the earth of the of broken fhells, and in many places the fand is covered with a rich black mould. The most barren tracts are covered with bufhes and long grafs; but over the black mould the vegetation is luxuriant, and the trees of vait dimenfions. From the Gambia to Rio Nunez, according to Adamfon, the foil both of the fea-coaft and of the interior diftricts is of incomparable fertility. Whether any of these regions have ever been inhabited by powerful civilized nations, is uncertain: There are vast chasms in the hiftory of ancient nations, which elude all our researches: We cannot penetrate the gloom of the remote ages. The early civilization of fouth Africa is attefted by numerous ancient authorities; and foms authors, with bruce and Volney, believe that the elements of the arts and fciences 66 higher country, which was wafhed "down by the Nile. They have, like "the Egyptians, two fpecies of let"ters, hieroglyphics, and the alpha"bet; but, among the Egyptians, "the firit was known only to the 66 priefts, and by them tranfmitted "from father to fon, whereas both "fpecies are common among the E"thiopians." "The Ethiopians," fays Lucian, "were the first who in 66 66 66 vented the fcience of the itars, and gave names to the planets; not at random, and without meaning, but defcriptive of the qualities which "they conceived them to poffefs; "and it was from them that this art paffed in an imperfect flate to the 66 that neither tradition, hiftory, nor ancient monuments, feem to fhow that the inhabitants of Nigritia have ever exifted in ftate of high refinement. Their foil eafily fupplies the neceffities of life; and their artificial wants are not fo numerous as to prevent gratification. They are unacquainted with the dexterity and difpatch which the divifion of labour produces; they have no conception of the increafe of power, which arifes from the combination of folitary efforts into one complex operation. Their exertions are individual and defultory; for unpolished tribes dwell on the detail, while refined nations generalize their knowledge. When we confider the imperfection of their tools, and their ignorance of machinery; when we alfo recollect that the fame individual fpins, weaves, fews, hunts, fishes, and forms his baskets, fishing-tackle. and inftruments of agriculture, the neatnefs of their manufacture, in iron, gold, fillagree-work, cotton-matting, and bafket-work, may excite our admiration. They also make falt and foap, and dye cloths with confider able skill Even the rudeft tribes make their own fishing tackle, canoes, and implements.. The ftaple commodities of Africa, before the Dutch had entered into competition with the Portugueze, before the fugar plantations had been elablished, and the European inha bitants of the West Indies had diwelted themfelves of their buccaneer ing character, were gold, ivory, wax, gums, oflrich feathers, medicimal and dye woods, which were purchafed with glafs beads, coarse woollen cloths, brandy, and trinkets of brafs and iron. But when the fugar plantations in the Weft Indies had at tained maturity, the trade in African produce gradually declined; even thofe denominated wood veffels, engaged, as far as poffible, in the purchafing of flaves, and the influence of Eaft and West Indian intereft ope rated irrefiftibly in difcouraging the kind would foon be fo" It is dif Auence |